Ahead of the Republic Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India initiative got a major boost in health sector with indigenous oral rotavirus vaccine, ROTAVAC receiving World Health Organisation (WHO) tag that will allow it to access global market.
Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe diarrhoeal disease in children worldwide, and vaccination is the best way to prevent severe rotavirus illness. In India, between 80,000 to 1 lakh children die due to Rotavirus diarrhoea annually, while nearly 9 lakh children are admitted to hospital with severe diarrhoea. Another 32.7 lakh children visit the hospital as out patients due to the disease.
Krishna Ella, Chairman and MD of the vaccine maker Bharat Biotech on Wednesday said the WHO has granted prequalification to its rotavirus vaccine ROTAVAC, used for prevention of infant deaths and hospitalisations due to rotavirus diarrhoea.
The WHO prequalification is necessary for the UN agencies and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to purchase vaccines in partnership with developing countries.
"The WHO prequalification will ensure access of the vaccine to almost 100 countries," This vaccine is innovated and made in India. The true impact of vaccines can be seen when vaccinations are carried out in affected populations, he added.
"ROTAVAC has been supplied to low-income countries at USD one per dose, with the feasibility for further 30 percent price reductions, based on the procurement of around 100 million doses for these countries," Ella said.
The vaccine which has been developed as a result of a multi-country, multi-partner collaborative model for over two decades, is already being supplied to nine States in the country under the Government immunisation programme and is also available in markets across the nation.
"The advent of a locally manufactured, WHO prequalified rotavirus vaccine offers promise to protect children in India, Africa, the Americas and the rest of Asia from this debilitating disease," said Duncan Steele, Enteric Diarrhoeal Diseases Team Deputy Director, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.